Well, its been a little longer than I'd hoped it would be between blogging sessions! I've had a group of 13 students and teachers from back home with me for the past 2 weeks and time has just disappeared. I've had a great time with them though. It's really refreshing to be reminded of what it is like to experience KISS for the first time; the highs of the incredible welcomes and endless smiling children, the hilarity of the way things work (or, more often than not don't work) in Uganda, and the lows of witnessing situations that leave you feeling utterly hopeless. Obviously those things never go away, however long you stay here – but, out of necessity, they become a part of daily life. It's nice to be reminded of the things that first awoke my own love for KISS; I hope the group has gone home similarly smitten!
Sylvia has been turning up for all of our KISS activities in Kasambya and she's quite a hit! She plays what I believe to be a truly fantastic game which involves asking for coins, going away, buying cakes, bringing them back and feeding me! Think I might ask her to move in! She's recently devised a new (slightly less useful) game which involves trying to lick my face – I'm doing what I can to encourage her to revert to the previous game! Word travels very fast in Kasambya and within days of us visiting Sylvia's family two other families turned up at the office with children with similar difficulties and they've also started coming to the activities. We escorted one of them home one evening and she told everyone she came across on the way, in an exceptionally loud and excited voice, what a wonderful time she had had playing with a ball – I've not witnessed such pure joy in a long time – beautiful!
Coincidentally we've just employed someone to work with us in Kasambya who has a lot of experience working with kids with disability. Her main remit is to help strengthen the pastoral provision that KISS offers – and hopefully with her experience we will be able to offer something extra for children like Sylvia who aren't able to attend school – the future is looking quite exciting!
We've been on a bit of a renovation drive with the visitors these past two weeks, and amongst many other paint related endeavours we've relocated and painted the KISS office. It started off very simply with blue sky, white fluffy clouds and a big rainbow.... but as the fumes increased and slight delirium crept in, we decided to paint some child friendly bugs on the walls as well... I was eventually banished after attempts a painting a grasshopper were misinterpreted as being a giant walking aubergine. Art was never my forte.
Right, best leave it there. Hoping to be able to update much more regularly from now on. One of the students has stayed behind and will be with me for another 9 days, so if I don't update you can blame him! He's a broadcast journalism student shooting some promotional footage for KISS – watch this space for the results!
Sylvia has been turning up for all of our KISS activities in Kasambya and she's quite a hit! She plays what I believe to be a truly fantastic game which involves asking for coins, going away, buying cakes, bringing them back and feeding me! Think I might ask her to move in! She's recently devised a new (slightly less useful) game which involves trying to lick my face – I'm doing what I can to encourage her to revert to the previous game! Word travels very fast in Kasambya and within days of us visiting Sylvia's family two other families turned up at the office with children with similar difficulties and they've also started coming to the activities. We escorted one of them home one evening and she told everyone she came across on the way, in an exceptionally loud and excited voice, what a wonderful time she had had playing with a ball – I've not witnessed such pure joy in a long time – beautiful!
Coincidentally we've just employed someone to work with us in Kasambya who has a lot of experience working with kids with disability. Her main remit is to help strengthen the pastoral provision that KISS offers – and hopefully with her experience we will be able to offer something extra for children like Sylvia who aren't able to attend school – the future is looking quite exciting!
We've been on a bit of a renovation drive with the visitors these past two weeks, and amongst many other paint related endeavours we've relocated and painted the KISS office. It started off very simply with blue sky, white fluffy clouds and a big rainbow.... but as the fumes increased and slight delirium crept in, we decided to paint some child friendly bugs on the walls as well... I was eventually banished after attempts a painting a grasshopper were misinterpreted as being a giant walking aubergine. Art was never my forte.
Right, best leave it there. Hoping to be able to update much more regularly from now on. One of the students has stayed behind and will be with me for another 9 days, so if I don't update you can blame him! He's a broadcast journalism student shooting some promotional footage for KISS – watch this space for the results!
Keep up the good work Kate, It's lovely hearing about your experiences from painting to the vilifying of Mr Holgate! lol.
ReplyDeleteMissing you. Loret.x.